Sprayed insulation is commonly used in the construction industry for insulating the open cavities of building walls, floors, ceilings, attics and other areas. Insulating materials, such as loose fiberglass, rock wool, mineral wool, fibrous plastic, cellulose, ceramic fiber, etc. that is combined with an adhesive or water, are sprayed into such open cavities to reduce the rate of heat loss or gain there-though. The properties of the insulation mixture, comprising insulation combined with the adhesive or water, allow it to adhere to vertical or overhanging surfaces, thus allowing for the application of insulation prior to the installation of wallboard and similar cavity enclosing materials.
Various systems have been devised for the application of spayed insulation mixtures into open cavities. Such systems typically utilize a loose insulation blower that draws loose insulation out of a hopper and pneumatically conveys it through a hose and out of the outlet end of an applicator nozzle. The adhesive that is mixed with the insulation is preferably a liquid adhesive that is sprayed onto the airborne insulation as it leaves the outlet end of the applicator nozzle. The water may also be sprayed onto the insulation when the insulation includes a dry adhesive material within the insulation mix, with the water thereafter activating the adhesive properties of the material. The liquid adhesive or water that is added to the airborne insulation is typically pumped from a reservoir and through one or more spray tips located proximal to the end of the applicator nozzle.
In applying sprayed insulation into open cavities, installers typically manually hold the outlet end of the applicator nozzle towards the open cavity. The installer then sprays the insulation mixture into the cavity until the cavity is filled. To ensure that the cavity is completely filled, an installer typically sprays an excess amount of mixture into the cavity such that an excess quantity of sprayed insulation has accumulated beyond an opening of the cavity defined by the cavity's confining boundaries, i.e. beyond the opening of a wall cavity defined by wall studs. The excess quantity of insulation is then removed or “scrubbed off,” utilizing a hand-held scrubber, to define a boundary of the sprayed insulation lying substantially planar at the cavity's opening.
A separate vacuum system is typically utilized to gather the excess insulation that is scrubbed-off or removed from the cavity's opening. In utilizing such a vacuum system, excess or scrubbed-off insulation is gathered or swept into a localized area. The gathered excess insulation is then drawn into the end of a vacuum inlet typically held by an installer. A vacuum fan then draws the excess material into the vacuum inlet and through a vacuum hose, and thereafter deposits the material into a bin or other container.
When applying sprayed insulation to a given open cavity, a preferred application distance is maintained between the outlet end of the applicator nozzle and the cavity for a given R value of insulation to ensure that a predetermined density or consistency of the sprayed insulation is maintained within the cavity. It is thus desirable to maintain a constant application distance during the application of an insulation of given R value. However, because present applicator nozzles are hand-held by the installer without any means for maintaining a constant distance between the nozzle outlet and the cavity to be sprayed, inconsistencies in application distance may occur, thus resulting in insulation applications lacking in uniform density.
Also, in maintaining a desired application distance between the nozzle outlet and the cavity to be sprayed, the installer and hand-held applicator nozzle must thus remain proximal to the cavity opening when spraying the insulation therein. However, maintaining this desired proximity between the installer and cavity is difficult when spraying the insulation into wall or ceiling cavities having an extended height or elevation because such extended elevations (i.e. located beyond about nine feet in height) are typically out of reach of the installer utilizing a hand-held insulation applicator nozzle and hand-held scrubber.
Various stilts, ladders and scaffolding systems are presently utilized by sprayed insulation installers to bring the installers into proximity with elevated cavities openings to be insulated. However, a number of disadvantages are associated with the use the use of such stilts, ladders and scaffolding. For example, their use presents numerous workplace safety hazards because each requires the installer to be elevated (i.e. on the stilts, ladder or scaffold) while spraying the insulation mixture into the elevated cavities or scrubbing the excess mixture therefrom. Thus, when in an elevated position on a ladder or stilts and working with the insulation applicator nozzle or hand-held scrubber, the installer handling the spray equipment is subject to the risk of falling and possible injury. Although the use of scaffolding systems presents less of a falling risk for the installer than stilts or ladders, the risk is nonetheless present while also requiring additional time and expense for transporting, mobilizing and setting-up of the scaffolding at a particular job site.
In addition to the inherent disadvantages associated with the use of stilts, ladders and scaffolding in elevating an insulation installer to a location proximal to an elevated wall or ceiling cavity, disadvantages are also associated with the sprayed insulation system itself, namely the spraying, scrubbing and subsequent vacuuming of the scrubbed excess insulation. Present systems utilizing such spraying, scrubbing and vacuuming procedures are not integrated, thus essentially requiring the execution of three separate procedures using three separate pieces of equipment. While a lone installer can perform each of the three separate procedures, use of a lone installer to perform all of the procedures is generally avoided because the overall execution of the three procedures is labor intensive and exhausting.
For example, the installer, after spraying a given course the insulation with the applicator nozzle, would have to dispose of (i.e. put down) the applicator nozzle and then utilize the hand-held scrubber to remove the excess sprayed insulation. After removing the excess insulation with the hand-held scrubber, the installer would then have to dispose of the scrubber and then utilize the vacuum system to gather the scrubbed, excess insulation. Because use of a lone installer to perform each of these procedures is too labor intensive, three-person teams are typically utilized instead, with each person of the team performing one of the three spraying, scrubbing and vacuuming procedures. However, the use of three-person teams, although less labor intensive for a given installer, results in undesirable additional costs associated by employing two additional installers for a given insulation job.
Thus, what is needed is an integrated, sprayed insulation system that allows an installer to maintain a constant application distance between the applicator nozzle outlet and the cavity to be sprayed. Such a system should also facilitate the application of the sprayed insulation mixture into elevated wall and ceiling cavities and the scrubbing of excess mixture therefrom while avoiding the use of stilts, ladders and scaffolding. The system should also allow a single installer to efficiently perform all three of the spraying, scrubbing and vacuuming procedures in an effort to minimize the labor costs associated with the utilization of three-person teams. The present invention fulfills each of the foregoing needs.